The seventh round of the FIA World Rally Championship takes the contenders to the Mediterranean island of Sardinia for the fifth consecutive gravel event of the season. Run in October last year, the event looks set to provide more gruelling action for the crews as high summer temperatures will put yet more strain on man and machinery.

The Canadian Grand Prix was one of four current Formula One races that Sebastian Vettel had not won. The Red Bull Racing driver laid that ghost to rest in emphatic style, completely dominating in Montreal from lights-out to chequered flag.

He finished over 14 seconds clear of Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari, who rose from sixth on the grid to second, having deposed Lewis Hamilton in the last ten laps. Having started second, Hamilton had to settle for third, his third such finish for Mercedes this season.

Starting from pole, Vettel comfortably held off Hamilton into Turn One, and instantly set about building a lead. By lap 17, when he made his first pit stop, he was seven seconds clear of the field. But it was in the second stint he really pushed on: by lap 30 he had 19 seconds in hand and was cruising.

In fact, the greatest danger to Vettel seemed to be lapses of concentration. He first brushed a wall and then, on lap 52, lost control at the first chicane and was forced to cut the corner. Both times he escaped unharmed and thereafter looked entirely untroubled.

“I was able to build a gap and then kept that gap basically the whole race. At some stages we had a full pitstop on hand and it’s a little bit easier then to control the race,” he said afterwards. “I had a very good start, which was important, and then I was able to really go with the car. I was able to build a gap and then kept that gap through the race. A very important race for us to win. Finally we get it off the list. Very proud of that.”

The victory in Montreal now leaves Vettel lacking only wins at his home race in Germany, at the Hungaroring and in Austin.

For Alonso, the race was rather less sedate. He moved up from sixth to fifth on the first lap, passing the free-falling Williams of Valtteri Bottas. After that it was a gritty race as he attacked Mark Webber’s Red Bull and the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg. Webber and Alonso both passed Rosberg and, mid-race, Webber reeled off a string of fast laps and looked set to challenge Hamilton ahead. Instead he was hit by the Caterham of backmarker Giedo van der Garde, damaging his front wing. He lost sufficient pace for Alonso to close in and take the position.

The Spaniard then hunted down Hamilton. The Mercedes driver defended stoutly for half a dozen laps but eventually succumbed on lap 63 to the quicker Ferrari.

“At the end I think the second place has a victory taste because we scored some good points after a very difficult weekend,” said Alonso.

Behind the top four, Nico Rosberg drove a subdued race to fifth for Mercedes, the last car not to be lapped by the leader. Jean-Eric Vergne circulated on his own for most of the race, bringing his Toro Rosso home a career-best sixth.

Paul di Resta was busy: having started 17th, Force India ran him on a one-stop strategy, which paid off handsomely with seventh position. He was chased over the line by Felipe Massa, who had started 16th for Ferrari. Kimi Räikkönen took ninth for Lotus, equaling Michael Schumacher’s record of 24 consecutive points finishes, and the final point went to Adrian Sutil, who would have finished higher but for a late drive-through penalty, incurred for ignoring blue flags.

Vettel moves on to 132 points in the Drivers’ Championship, with Alonso now his closest rival on 96 points. In the Constructors’ table, Red Bull likewise strengthened their position, going 56 points clear of Ferrari with 201.

Sebastian Vettel claimed his third pole position in a row in Montreal ahead of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, as Valtteri Bottas sprang a major surprise by qualifying third for Williams in a damp and difficult session at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve.

After easing through the first two segments of the hour-long session, Vettel was first out in Q3 when the green light went on at the end of pit lane. And at the end of the 10-minute shoot-out the defending champion was still at the head of the field, his first flying lap of a two-tour final run being good enough to deny Hamilton.

The Mercedes driver might have stolen P1 at the last, as he was inside Vettel’s benchmark as he entered the circuit’s final sector. The drizzle that had fallen on and off since the start of the session was strengthening however, and as the Briton arrowed towards the final chicane he made a mistake and had to swerve off track. For Vettel it was a relief.

“We decided to have two runs and we thought the second run would be quicker because we had a new set of tyres left, but it started to drizzle, in the last sector in particular, in the last chicane,” he said. “I went straight on one lap and then the second lap I had a mistake somewhere else, so it turned out that the conditions were best for the first run. Very happy the first lap was good enough. It was very tight with Lewis.”

Hamilton was naturally disappointed with his final lap. “I was doing a pretty good lap, I think I was six or seven tenths up, but even so I went wide,” he said. “I don’t know whether I would have kept it but all I needed to keep was a tenth or so, a bit unfortunate – but I’m still happy to be here for the team.”

As was Bottas, for whom third is a best-ever grid position. The rookie driver also handed Williams its best starting slot since Pastor Maldonado qualified third at last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

“It means a lot,” said the 23-year-old Finn. “It’s way more up in the grid than what we really could ever imagine. It’s been so difficult, the first six races for us and it will be a nice boost for the team. We really got everything quite right today.”

In the run-up to Q1 a light drizzle began to fall across a cold and damp Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and after exploratory laps on the slick supersoft tyre the whole field reverted to intermediates to cope with the greasy track.

Despite the complex conditions the result was largely predictable, at least at the very bottom of the order. Caterham’s Giedo van der Garde and Charles Pic were ousted as were the Marussia’s of Bianchi and Chilton. There were surprises, though, in the shape of Romain Grosjean failing to progress from 19th place and Paul Di Resta exiting the session in 17th spot. Grosjean, who has to take a 10-place grid penalty for colliding with Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo in Monaco, will start from the back of the grid.

There was a late shock in Q2 too, when Ferrari’s Felipe Massa lost control at Turn 3 and crashed into the barriers, bringing out the red flags. When the session resumed with just two minutes left on the clock, the question was whether anyone could get temperature into their tyres to improve on a final run.

The answer was no. The major casualties were both McLarens, with Sergio Pérez qualifying 12th and Jenson Button 14th. The news was better for Toro Rosso, who saw both its drivers into Q3 for the first time since the Indian Grand Prix of 2011.

“Today’s qualifying was one of those sessions where it either all falls into place for you – or it doesn’t,” said Button of his failure. “And we were just out of luck this afternoon. We encountered yellow flags, a red flag; and, when the session restarted, I crossed the line about half a second too late to start my final flying lap.

“We weren’t as competitive as we thought we’d be, and 14th obviously isn’t the place where I want to start, but the good news is that you can overtake around here. A race in mixed conditions tomorrow would be good for us.”

With Vettel, Hamilton and Bottas annexing the front three spots on the grid for tomorrow’s race, fourth place went to Nico Rosberg in the second Mercedes. Mark Webber was fifth, the Red Bull Racing driver finishing three-tenths of a second ahead of sixth-placed Fernando Alonso.

After making it into Q3 for the second race in a row, Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne made the most of the opportunity with the result that the Frenchman recorded his best-ever qualifying position of seventh.

“It was not an easy session and at one point I thought I wouldn’t even make it out of Q1,” said Vergne. “But we managed to improve a couple of things on the car and that helped. Generally, I feel comfortable in the wet, but that wasn’t the case today. The car wasn’t exceptional, but we got the most out of it I think. It was tough driving out there, but in the end it worked as is clear from the fact I got seventh place on the grid.

“It’s my best ever F1 qualifying, but I’m not going to be jumping for joy over a seventh place, as there are no points given out on Saturday,” he added. “We still have the main part of the job to do tomorrow, when I will be trying to at the very least maintain this position and even do better.”

Vergne will be joined on row four of the grid by Force India’s Adrian Sutil. Kimi Raikkonen was ninth for Lotus and the top ten was rounded out by Daniel Ricciardo in the second Toro Rosso.

Mark Webber finished at the top of the FP3 standings in Montreal at the end of a frantic final few minutes in a shortened session.

The final practice period ahead of qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix was restricted to just half an hour after lengthy repairs were needed to fix a barrier at Turn 11 which had been damaged in a support race accident earlier in the morning.

When the action did get underway at 10.30am local time, the early minutes saw installation laps give way to a period in which the expected front runners played a waiting game while the track was taken over by drivers needing either mileage on an unfamiliar track or seeking a fix for lingering set-up issues.

P1 on the timesheet was taken, in swift succession, by rookies Esteban Gutierrez, and Valtteri Bottas before Felipe Massa stamped some authority on proceedings with a lap of 1:23.492 set on intermediate tyres just before the quarter hour mark.

The exploration on intermediates continued until the final few minutes of the session when Red Bull Racing’s Mark Webber, until then with just single installation lap under his belt, emerged on slick supersoft tyres.

He was still joined on track by Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, on the same specification rubber, and that triggered a frenzy, as the field switched to slick tyres and the times began to tumble.

On an improving track, claiming P1 was, in the end, simply a matter of who crossed the finish line last. And that honour fell to Webber, whose lap of 1:17.895 was good enough to see off Force India’s Adrian Sutil by 0.353. Third place went to Lewis Hamilton, with the Mercedes driver eight tenths of a second adrift of Webber’s benchmark. Alonso finished fourth, while Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel ended the truncated session in fifth place, the defending champion only setting his first timed lap with just two minutes left on the clock.

Monisha, gentlemen, I’m sure most of my colleagues here would like to hear your views and opinions regarding the tyre test carried out at Barcelona last month. I’m afraid it’s ladies first, Monisha; can we start with you?

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso claimed the fastest time of Friday afternoon in Montreal as the rain showers that disrupted the morning session stayed away in second practice at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve.

Alonso's lap time of 1:14.818 came 55 minutes into FP2. It narrowly edged the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton into P2 and was the last significant change to the leader board. Afterwards everyone then settled into long run simulations for the final half hour. Romain Grosjean was third for Lotus, ahead of Red Bull Racing’s Mark Webber and the second Mercedes of Nico Rosberg.

Felipe Massa was sixth for Ferrari, followed by Sebastian Vettel for Red Bull. Adrian Sutil was eighth for Force India, ahead of McLaren’s Jenson Button. Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo completed the top ten.

The absence of rain was a significant factor this afternoon, with the field rushing out en masse as the pitlane light went green. The track stayed dry for the whole session, though a few drops of rain did fall towards the end of the 90 minutes. It has the threat of heavier showers, however, that affected the run plans. The session began with most runners using Pirelli’s experimental tyre for a stint. They then swapped onto the medium compound – but after a short burst switched to the red-banded supersoft for another short burst, rather than leaving that to the end of the session as would frequently be the case. Once the supersoft runs were completed, drivers settled into high-fuel long runs to the chequered flag.

From the start, the field were immediately lapping a few seconds faster than they had on the supersoft compound at the end of FP1. Hamilton was the first man to break through the 1m16s barrier, setting a time of 1:15.702 half an hour into the session. After that the Red Bulls took over the pace settings, with Vettel and Webber swapping fastest times – Webber ultimately the faster with 1:15.212 at the halfway mark.

Hamilton was the first man under 1m15s, resetting P1 to 1:14.830, but held the lead for only a minute before Alonso narrowly beat that with 37 minutes left on the clock.

Force India’s Paul di Resta popped at the top of the leaderboard in the last few seconds of a rain-affected FP1 at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve.

First practice at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve was dominated by the conditions, which saw rain fall steadily in the lead up to the session – but the rain held off during the session itself, and thus drivers went through the whole range of tyres as a dry line formed.

The early laps were on the full wet tyre, followed by the bulk of the session being run on the intermediates. Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne appeared on Pirelli’s experimental slick tyre shortly after the hour mark but pronounced it too wet. Sebastian Vettel tried on the medium shortly afterwards on his Red Bull but struggled to match his time on the inters. Only in the last ten minutes did the majority of the field appear on dry tyres, by which point the track was sufficiently dry for them to be marginally quicker than the inters.

That triggered big changes to the leaderboard. Jenson Button went into P1 with a lap of 1:21.551, the first runner to do so on slicks but several runners went under that mark in the last minute of the session, with Di Resta, anonymous to that point, being the man at the top when the chequered flag signalled the end of proceedings.

Di Resta’s time of 1:21.020 was six seconds away from a good, dry practice time of 2012, indicating how marginal the surface was. Several drivers had spins and minor excursions during that last ten minutes, with Williams’ Pastor Maldonado hitting the wall and shattering his nosecone at Turn Four.

Earlier in the session Jules Bianchi had been the only casualty, taking to the escape road at that same chicane, struggling to turn his Marussia around and being asked to switch off his engine by his pit crew. The intermediate running had seen Nico Rosberg for Mercedes continuing his strong form with a series of fastest laps, though as the session went on Vettel overhauled him and would finish FP1 with the fastest time on the inters.